Sapphira

Sapphira

“It’s All About the Secrets”

Scripture References: Acts 5:1-11

ABOUT HER

Read Acts 4:32-5:11

Why is this story in Scripture? 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 NKJV ”Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

• The wife of Ananias
• Agreed together with her husband to lie
• Fell down dead after her husband
• The Bible gives us no genealogical record of Ananias and Sapphira

Read about the atmosphere of the early church (Acts 4:33-35). This was after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and it was an intense time in church history of the initial working of the Holy Spirit.

HER FEARLESS MISTAKE: She was afraid the wrong way

Acts 5:1-11

(v. 1) “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira…”

Here we see them trying to mimic someone else’s spiritual action without a personal heart connection.

“The action of Barnabas to sell all was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now two other believers are actuated by the spirit of evil to pretend a similar surrender…….They wanted to give the impression that their all was on the altar, when it was not, and thus they became guilty of sacrilege in the attempt to obtain the reputation of saintliness with the reality of sacrifice.” -Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible

It is believed that they were professed believers and that this was an act of God’s discipline in the church.

“they were struck down in sanctifying discipline, rather than in an everlasting condemnation. And that they so died that we might learn so to live as not to die.” -Alexander Whyte

Their problem: They did not fear the Lord.

It is good to have a healthy fear (reverence) of God that reminds you of your place in comparison to His holiness, righteousness and the knowledge that He is all-powerful.

When is it good to be afraid? “Not all fear is unhealthy. Some of it qualifies as reverence. Maybe the apostle Paul felt the kind we’re discussing in 2 Corinthians 11:3. ‘I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.’ Look at is this we: We lock our doors at night to keep out intruders. Fear can be wise.” -Beth Moore, James Mercy Triumphs Judgement

The only way you can truly be a fearless woman of God is to fear the Lord!

Proverbs 29:25 NKJV “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.”

Luke 12:4-5 NKJV “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

In the Greek this word for fear is “phobeo”

Webster’s definition of the english word “phobia” is “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation”

How do you develop a healthy fear of the Lord? By regularly getting into God’s presence.

Hebrews 10:31 ESV “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

(Psalm 96:9 NKJV) “Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.”

(Psalm 114:7 NKJV) “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob”

HER HYPOCRISY: She kept the wrong secrets

Ananias and Sapphira cared more about the appearance of spirituality then the actuality of spirituality.

“Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.” -George MacDonald

Where you are, when you are, how you are is what you are! Be what you are. Don’t try to be. Just be.

“If you’re not somewhere yet in your spiritual walk, don’t pretend to be there.” -Karen Kyle

Matthew 6:1-4 ESV “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

It’s not so much about what we do as it is about how we do it.

One of the secrets of successful Christian living is the life of the secret heart.

Psalm 51:6 ESV “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

(Psa 19:12 NKJV) “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.”

(Psa 90:8 NKJV) “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”

(Psa 91:1 NKJV) “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

(Ecc 12:14 NKJV) “For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

(Dan 2:22 NKJV) “He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.”

Ask Yourself: What was it that kept them from seeing the severity of what they were doing? PRIDE

Pride will blind you.

“Pride opens the door to every other sin, for once we are more concerned with our reputation than our character, there is no end to the things we will do just to make ourselves ‘look good’ before others.” -Warren W. Wiersbe

Safeguard against deception: Get in agreement with the Lord through His Word first before being in agreement with someone else’s assessment, opinion or decision.

Read James 2:13-18

It’s one thing when one person is doing something wrong. It is another dynamic to agree together with someone to do something wrong.

SECRET: Here is a secret to NOT living as a hypocrite is to live from the heart.

Homework: Read Psalm 119 and highlight the word delight every time you see it.

HER DEATH: She died the wrong way

Bad death: Focus on the outside (appearance) will bring inner death (sin).

Good death: Focus on the inner (heart) will bring inner death (life).

Romans 8:13 NKJV “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Live on the inside (according to the flesh) -----> DEATH

Die on the inside (by the Spirit) -----> LIVE

(Romans 6:16, 21) “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? ... What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”

(Romans 6:23 NKJV) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(Romans 7:5, 13 NKJV) “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. ... Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.”

Life Lesson

“The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart”

Discussion Questions:

1. What lie do you remember telling when you were a child? What happened?
2. Were Ananias and Sapphira required to sell the land and lay all the money at the apostles’ feet? What was their sin?
3. What do you learn about the fear of the Lord from this story? How will you apply this in your life today?

Adulterous Woman

The Adulterous Woman

Scripture References: John 8:1-11

Read John 8:1-11

Jesus conversed with at least three adulterous women: woman of Samaria (John 4), woman who broke her alabaster jar at His feet in the house of Simon (Luke 7) and the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8).

Jesus was tender, gentle and loving with each of these women. We never see Him act harsh or cold with them.

HER SIN

(v. 1-3)

Adultery

Seventh Commandment “You shall not commit adultery”

The penalty of committing adultery was death (Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 22).

Deuteronomy 22:22 ESV “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”

God is holy and just and He must deal with sin.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 -The Bible says adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they have been justified by Jesus.

Proverbs 6:23 ESV “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.”

“Sin is not bad because it is forbidden, it is forbidden because it is bad.”

God loves His children and His Word and His ways are for our good.

Adultery comes not from the outside but from the inside. Read Matthew 15:10-20

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

James 4:4 -talks about spiritual adultery. Isaiah 54:5 ESV “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”

1 John 5:21 ESV “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

HER IDENTITY

(v. 4)

“caught in the act”

The enemy wants us to feel that our identity comes from what we have done or what we are doing….good or bad. God wants our identity to come from who we are in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:3 ESV “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

So much of our identity comes from what we clothe ourselves in.

You are what you wear.

Physical

• the garments Adam and Eve created after they realized their sin (Genesis 3:7)
• the garments the priests would wear (Exodus 40:13-14)
• being clothed in sackcloth as an act of mourning (Esther 4:4)
• clothed with rags as a consequence of drunkenness (Proverbs 23:21)
• clothed with fine linen and purple, a royal color (Proverbs 31:22)
• clothed by God (Matthew 6:30 -speaking of God’s provision)

Spiritual

• clothed with salvation Psalm 132:16 NKJV “I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.”
• clothed with shame Psalm 132:18 NKJV “His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon Himself His crown shall flourish.”
• clothed with rich, clean robe (Read Zechariah 3:1-5)
• dressed for action, dignity and splendor (Job 40:7-10)
• clothed with violence (Psalm 73:6)
• dressed with strength and dignity (Proverbs 31:17, 25)
• wearing Christ Himself (Romans 13:14)
• clothed with immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53)
• clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12)
• clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5)
• clothed with righteous deeds (Revelation 19:8)

HER ACCUSERS

(v. 5-9)

A SET UP: If they were truly interested in justice...then where was the man? The law demanded that both the adulteress and adulterer be brought (Leviticus 20:10). Most Bible scholars believe that it was a set-up to entrap Jesus.

“All they hoped to do was to snare Jesus into making an answer contrary to the law. If He had said, ‘Let her be stoned,’ His tenderness and kindness in dealing with the sinful and degraded would have been shown as being false. Had He said, ‘Let her go,’ there might have been a revolt among those who, although they were favorable to him were yet staunch defenders of what Moses taught.” -Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible

**It has been properly translated “Let he who is without the same sin cast the first stone.” -J. Allen Blair

“Here they were condemned as being guilty of the very sin they cast against the woman. Not one of them was innocent of the sin of adultery they brought against the woman, even the eldest man among them.” -Herbert Lockyer, All of the Women of the Bible

“Could anything have been more cruel or harsh than that of setting this sinful woman ‘in the midst’ of the Temple, exposing her to the gaze of the multitude?” -Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible

People who are judgemental seek to have dominion over others.

Read Matthew 7:1-5 concerning judging

judge “krino” -in this context it means “to form and express a judgement or opinion as to any person or thing, more commonly unfavorable...in an absolute sense.”

Matthew 5:7 ESV “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Revelation 12:10 NKJV “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.’”

HER SAVIOR

(v. 10-11)

When Jesus called her “woman” it was the very same word that He called his mother.

Jesus did not call her “adulterous woman” but viewed her with eyes of grace and without partiality. He was indeed the friend of sinners.

The Pharisees addressed Jesus as “teacher” but she addressed Him as “Lord”.

“go and sin no more” -Jesus the One who could condemn did not...He set her free.

The enemy only gets the victory when we stay down.

“go” -move forward...go on to what God has for you. Don’t stay living stuck in a sin of your past that Jesus already said He was not going to condemn you for.

Romans 8:1 ESV “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Remember the sinful woman who broke her alabaster jar at the feet of Jesus and He said to her accusers, “Therefore I tell you , her sins, which are many, are forgiven -for she loved much. But

he who is forgiven little, loves little.” -Luke 7:47 ESV

James 2:10 NKJV “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Life Lesson

“Our obligation is to glean these lessons so patent from the episode, namely, be slow to condemn every human judgement of another’s sin; to condemn every sin in our own lives; to declare to every sinner God’s forgiveness.” -Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the manifestations of living as if we are condemned?

2. What are the manifestations of living as if we are free?